The present invention relates to machine translation of languages. More specifically, the present invention relates to phrase translation of languages using a unified language and translation model.
Machine translation involves a computer receiving input text either in written form, or in the form of speech, or in another suitable machine-readable form. The machine may typically use a statistical translation model in order to translate the words in the input text from a first language (in which they are input) to a second, desired language. The translation is then output by the machine translator.
Previous methods of machine translation can roughly be classified into two categories. The first category includes rule-based translators. These translators receive input text and apply rules to the input text in order to arrive at a translation from a first language to a second language. However, such rule-based systems suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, such systems are relatively slow, and exhibit low robustness.
The second category of prior machine translation systems includes statistically based systems. Such systems use statistical models in an attempt to translate the words in the input from a first language to a second language. However, statistical models also suffer from certain disadvantages. For example, such models often suffer because they largely ignore structural information in performing the translation. This has resulted in poor translation quality.